Choose your preferred view mode

Please select whether you prefer to view the MDPI pages with a view tailored for mobile displays or to view the MDPI
pages in the normal scrollable desktop version. This selection will be stored into your cookies and used automatically
in next visits. You can also change the view style at any point from the main header when using the pages with your
mobile device.

Abstract

The study aimed at determining ammonia and GHG emissions from soil fertilized with pellets made from composted pig slurry solid fraction and to evaluate the effects of pellet diameter and pellet application method on gaseous emissions. A laboratory scale experiment was carried out investigating two composts: pig slurry solid fraction compost (SSFC) and pig slurry solid fraction mixed with wood chips compost (WCC). The two composts were pelettized in two different diameters—6 and 8 mm—by means of mechanical pelletizer. In total, eight fertilized treatments plus one unfertilized control were included in the experiment. The investigated pellets were applied at the same nitrogen rate (equivalent to 200 kg ha−1) using two different methods (on soil surface and incorporated into the soil). Ammonia (NH3) emission was monitored immediately after pellet application, while nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) were measured on a 57-day incubation period. As expected, ammonia volatilization was not detected from any of the treatments investigated. At the end of the experiment, the cumulative amounts of N2O, CO2 and CH4 ranged from 2.70 mg N-N2O m−2 to 24.30 mg N-N2O m−2, from 601.89 mg C-CO2 m−2 to 1170.34 mg C-CO2 m−2 and from 1.22 mg C-CH4 m−2 to 1.31 mg C-CH4 m−2, respectively. The overall results of the investigation highlighted that application on the soil surface reduced nitrous oxide emission, while the carbon dioxide emission increased significantly with smaller pellet diameter.
View Full-Text

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).